Measuring-rule.



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MEASURING RULE.

(Application mea Jan. 25, 1902.)

(No Mndel.)

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NTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALLEN LATSHAW, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

NIEASURlNG-RULE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 706,242, dated August5, 1902.

Application filed January 25, 1902. Serial No. 91,151. (No model.)

To @ZZ wtmn t may concern:

Beit known that I, ALLEN LATSHAW, a citizen of the United States,residing at No. 3S North Thirty-sixth street, Philadelphia, in thecounty of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a newanduseful System, to be called a Measuring-Rule, for the Graduation ofRules, Scales, and Instruments for Linear Measurements,of which thefollowing is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in the graduation or marking ofrules, scales, instru ments, and apparatus for linear measurements.

The objects of my improvement are, first, to facilitate the reading oflthe units and the fractional parts of the respective units; second, toshow the linear dimensions of the units and of their fractional partsover both obstructed and unobstructed surfaces; third, to illustrate theprinciples and values of fractions and mixed numbers for school andkindred purposes; fourth, graphically to show the `relations offractions and mixed numbers to each other and to the unit for school andkindred purposes. I attain these objects by the system of graduationillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l shows aplan View of a measuringrulewith graduations embodying my improvements.Fig. 2 shows the same with modifications as to the widths of therespective lines of graduation.

For illustrative purposes we will assume the rule to be six inches long,one inch wide, and divided into units of one inch. The denomination ofthe principal fraction of the unit is the fourth, which again has beensubdivided into fourths, thus giving halves, quarters, eighths, andsixteenths as fractions of the unit.

Each unit of the decisive measuring-rule shall be marked off by a line,as X Y Z, dac., in the figure, drawn at right angles to the longitudinaledge of the rule or scale. Said line shall extend across the rule orscale except for a break or space sufficient in size to admit a figureor number. The respective units of the said rule or scale shall bedivided and subdivided into fractional parts of any denominations bylines, as A B C D E F, dna., in

the figure, drawn at right angles from the upper edge of the rule whenthe reading end of the rule or scale is at the left.' The lengths ofsaid lines (and the widths, if considered desirable) shall be governedby their positions with respect to the reading end of the rule,

the unit, or the principal fractional division of the unit--that is tosay, as in the figure, where the fourth is the denomination of theprincipal fraction ofthe unit, the line marked A at a distance ofone-fourth of the value of the unit from the reading end of the rule (oranyiunit) shall be equal in length to onefourth of the Width of therule, the line marked B at a distance of one-half of the value of theunit from the reading end of the rule (or any unit) shall be equal in plength to one-half of the width of the rule and shall or may be twice aswide as the said line marked A, and the line marked C at a distance ofthree-fourths of the value of the unit from the reading end of the rule(or any unit) shall be equal in length to threefourths of the width ofthe rule and shall or may be of a fixed width with respect to the saidline marked A. The principal fractions shall or may be divided intofractional parts, preferably of the same denomination as that into whichthe units have been divided. These lines marking the subdivisions oftheunits shall be of dimensions determined upon the principles abovestated-that is to say, as in the figure, the line marked D at a distanceof one-sixteenth of the value of the unit from the reading end of therule (a unit or a principal fractional division of a unit) shall beequal in length to one-sixteenth of the width of the rule. In likemanner a line, as E, marking an eighth part of any unit, as aforesaid,shall be equal in length to oneeighth of the Width of the rule and aline, as F, marking three-sixteenths of any unit, as aforesaid, shall beequal in length to threesixteenths of the width of the rule.

Fig. 2 shows a rule drawn under the same conditions as in Fig. l, buthaving this modification-to wit, the widths of the respective lines arein a ratio with their respective readings.

The decisive measuring-rule shall be printed, engraved,stamped,etched,photographed,

or marked on paper, tape, wood, glass, celluloid, metal, or such othermaterials as its various and varied uses shall require.

I am aware that prior to my invention scales, rules, and graduatedinstruments have been made with the units and various divisions markedby lines of different dimensions, respectively; but I am not aware thatlengths of said lines have ever been made dependent upon the readingsthey represented in terms of the width of the rule or scale upon whichthey are marked.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

A measuring-rule having units whereof each ALLEN LATSHAW.

Witnesses:

H. A. CANNON, ALLEN B. CLEMENT.

